The conglomerate announced Friday it will repatriate $36 billion to help fund a plan to shed its GE Capital business. GE will pay $6 billion in taxes to bring the money over, leaving it with about $25 billion overseas, based on the company’s latest earnings filing.

GE joins such S&P 500 companies as eBay Inc., VeriSign, and Stryker, in setting aside foreign profits to buy back stock, pay for capital improvements and even fund operations.

But GE’s repatriation is particularly large, totaling about 12% of the estimated $301 billion companies brought back or earmarked for repatriation all of last year, according to Credit Suisse AG.

As CFO Journal reported last month, the 2014 number was a 7% increase from 2013 and the largest amount brought back since 2005.

Companies don’t have to pay U.S. tax on foreign earnings unless they either physically bring it home or declare that it’s not “indefinitely reinvested” overseas.

Although the impetus that’s driven the latest broad repatriation uptick is unclear, GE’s motivation is plain: the company is using the money to help pay for a massive $90 billion in shareholder returns, including $35 billion in dividends, $35 billion buybacks and $20 billion related to a share exchange from spinning off its private-label credit cards and retail-finance businesses into a separate publicly traded company.

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After a 30-year investment banking career, Peter Matt joined Constellium as CFO in 2016 to help the organization increase financial flexibility, accelerate growth and deliver positive free cash flow in 2019. He discusses how he has worked with CEO Jean-Marc Germain to develop the strategy, and how he is leveraging the finance organization to operationalize the plan. Mr. Matt also shares his views on instilling capital discipline and driving change across a global organization.

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